Copyright 2001 Ha'aretz
Ha'aretz
October 31, 2001
HEADLINE: Not Resting in Peace
BYLINE: Yair Sheleg
As long as the bodies of missing soldiers are not brought home, their families know no comfort.
The news earlier this week that the three soldiers kidnapped by
Hezbollah last year were very likely dead, returned Hadassah Fink to
1986, and the case of her son Yosef.
Indeed, the similarities with the case of her son and his friend
Rahamim Alsheikh, are chilling. Fink and Alsheikh were kidnapped by
Hezbollah in February 1986, while serving in the Givati Brigade in
Lebanon. For five years, the families believed they were alive,
until then IDF chief rabbi Gad Navon told them in 1991 that new
intelligence had led the army to believe the two soldiers were
actually dead.
Then, as now, the army didn't give the families the information that
led to this bleak conclusion, lest intelligence sources be
compromised. Only five years later were the bodies of Fink and
Alsheikh returned, in a July 1996 deal involving the release of 45
Hezbollah fighters and the bodies of 123 more.
"When we were told the boys were dead, we had mixed feelings," says
Hadassah Fink. "On the one hand, we were relieved because there was
an end to the mystery that had been plaguing us, and we knew that at
least the boys weren't suffering anymore - all the while we believed
and hoped they were alive, we worried about the conditions of their
captivity. On the other hand, it was difficult to accept a final
conclusion that ended all our hopes.
"My husband and I had different reactions to the announcement. He
immediately accepted it and began mourning the boy. I refused to
accept what they said without proof. I wanted them to give me at
least something so I could believe it was final. My husband took it
as it was, and said the chief rabbi, who was known for being very
pedantic, wouldn't have told us the boys were gone unless it was
definite.
"I allowed myself five more years of illusion that maybe he was
alive, that he would suddenly show up. I only began to mourn in
1996, when the bodies were returned."
Now, Hadassah Fink is convinced they are in the best position of all
the MIA families because "our boy is with us and he can't be hurt
anymore."
Fink's story shows how hard it is for the families of MIA soldiers
who are believed dead but whose final resting place is unknown.
Although the final determination of death puts an end to the
persistent hope that the missing soldier will one day suddenly
reappear, it can also give a sense of relief about what happened.
And yet, if the final resting place is unknown, some faint hope
remains that the official intelligence assessments will be proved
wrong.
Hadassah Fink has experienced the anguish before; her father
disappeared toward the end of World War II, and his body has never
been recovered. "The uncertainty is maddening. As children, we were
always worried for our mother, who remarried, that our father would
show up. But with our son, at least the matter was clear-cut."
As Fink's story shows, there can be different reactions to the news
even within a family, let alone between all the families involved.
"For both families, us and the Alsheikhs, the immediate significance
of the announcement the boys were gone was that we stopped all our
diplomatic activity trying to find out what happened to them. But we
didn't mourn at the same time. We only sat shiva [Jewish mourning
period] after the bodies were returned."
Shlomo Dror, the Defense Ministry spokesman, says the defense
establishment has 420 names of soldiers who are missing, presumed
dead, but whose location is not known. That number fluctuates as new
discoveries are made by the Defense Ministry unit that investigates
cases of missing soldiers dating back to the War of Independence.
Just this week, as the announcement came of the deaths of the three
kidnapped soldiers, a full military ceremony was held for two pilots
who went down in their plane 48 years ago, and whose bodies were
never recovered.
Eliezer Reisner and his navigator Yehuda Katz crashed into the
waters off Atlit in August 1953. Katz's family already knew what it
was like to mourn without a grave. Their oldest boy, Dubi, was
killed in 1971 during an Egozi regiment operation in Lebanon. He was
eventually buried in Kiryat Shaul, when the body was returned. His
sister, Rachel Katz Zuckerman, recalls how difficult it is not
knowing: "The most difficult thing when there's no grave is that
everything is up in the air. As much as you know there's no chance
he's alive, the fact there's no sign, and no body, makes it
difficult to accept he's gone."
When Dubi was killed, his mother Hannah, who was already a war
widow, wanted to inscribe on his tombstone the name of his father,
as he did not have a grave. That way, a visit to Dubi's grave would
also be a visit to his father's.
Tragically, the widow and bereaved mother didn't get to see Yehuda
Katz's body buried; she passed away four months ago. Her
sister-in-law says, "It's clear that only now we have closed the
circle of my fallen brother, but it is still difficult because I
only received word about Yehuda last week. The feelings are still
fresh and all 48 years have fallen on me, with all the memories and
the pain. I think that it will take some time, but in the end I will
feel relieved."
Aryeh Mualem, who runs the Defense Ministry's unit for commemorating
soldiers, says that to help the families of soldiers whose final
resting place is not known, the military cemeteries have collective
tombs with the names of the fallen inscribed. Unlike normal military
graves, which have the grave itself and a tombstone "pillow" with
the soldier's name and details inscribed on it, these group graves
are marked only with the information of each of the missing
soldiers. Instead of the words "Here is buried," the stones read "In
memory of the soldier."
Of the 420 soldiers known to be missing and dead but without a final
resting place, 300 are remembered in the military cemetery on Mt.
Herzl in Jerusalem. Every year, a state ceremony is held at Mt.
Herzl on Adar 7, the traditional Hebrew calendar's anniversary of
the death of Moses, whose final resting place is also not known.
For now, the names of the soldiers whose deaths were announced
yesterday, will be added to that memorial. But one day, the families
hope, if the boys don't miraculously appear alive, then at least
their bodies will be returned, so they can finally have a resting
place, and the families can finally have some peace.